


New Flats and New Friends

by nerdfighter721



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-08 20:59:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4320477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdfighter721/pseuds/nerdfighter721
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pedro keeps hearing a mysterious guy every morning singing in the flat next to him. One day, he finally gets up enough courage to go and talk to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Flats and New Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Based Off Of: “we live in adjacent apartments and the walls are really thin, so I hear you sing every morning in the shower at 6:30 and you’re actually really good and I stand next to the wall and sing the next lyric just to see what would happen” au

**New Flats and New Friends**

Pedro had just finished moving into his new flat a week and a half ago, yet boxes still surrounded him. He would only be alone for another week and a half before his other two flat mates would move in too. When he had started to move in, a handful of his friends helped him out from moving his things out of his parents’ house and into this new flat, but he declined their help when they offered to help him unpack. Thus, Pedro now had boxes scattered throughout the flat and knew that, soon enough, he would have to unpack them.

When he counted that it had been eleven days since he moved in, he decided that, in the morning, he would start to unpack. Anyway, he needed to find his old Messina jacket, it was starting to get cold out and he liked the nostalgia it brought back. Ever since he had moved in, however, Pedro hadn’t been able to sleep past 6:30 since the person in the flat adjacent to him decided to always take a shower and sing loudly. It was annoying to wake up to for the first few days, but once Pedro forced himself to wake up that early, he actually began to enjoy it.

So, on the morning that Pedro decided he would finally unpack his boxes, he set his phone to go off at 6:15 and woke up in a surprisingly good mood. In the back of his mind, he knew that he had had a good dream, not that he really remembered any of the details in it. One thing kept coming back into his mind, and that was a vague face, but Pedro could pinpoint where he had seen that face ever before.

The sounds of the water starting pulled Pedro away from his train of thought and he quite nearly cheered with joy when he heard the mysterious guy singing Glare from Sheep, Dog, & Wolf – Pedro’s favorite song from his favorite band. Grinning like mad, Pedro leaned up against the thin wall that connected the two flats together and listened in to the guy.

As the mysterious guy started to get into the song, Pedro did to. Pedro would start to sing the next line of the song before the other guy could, but, if he could hear anything, he didn’t stop singing. Pedro laughed quietly when the guy finished the song, as he changed to the Mumford and Sons song that he had, without fail, sung every single day. After the third time of Pedro hearing the song, he looked it up and learned that it was a song called _Sigh No More_. It was a good song, but Pedro really did like hearing the mystery guy singing it even more.

Once the shower turned off, Pedro decided that, before the day was over, he would go over and meet this guy. He really wanted to hear what he sounded like without water running and a wall between them, no matter how thin the wall might be. Pedro decided to make a deal with himself, he would unpack at least 50 percent of the boxes then he would allow himself to go next door and say hello. As it turned out, as soon as Pedro turned on a playlist he had of Sheep, Dog, & Wolf, he was actually much more motivated to unpack.

After a couple of hours, Pedro managed to unpack this entire room. The big things like his bed and shelves had been put together already when he initially moved in but now he actually had things like his old Football trophies and photos of him and his friends on them. He had also migrated out into the sitting room where, since he was the first one to move it, he was given the job to set up the television and gaming system. His other flat mates, Benedick and Beatrice, had already set up a Mario Kart 8 session as a house warming party for them. They had one other possible roommate, but she was still on the edge of taking a gap year and traveling the world.

Only forty minutes after he finished with his room, Pedro finished up the flat completely, at least, what he was able to complete. The rest was just Benedick and Beatrice needing to move in. Smiling, Pedro paused the music and closed his computer. Pedro decided to have some lunch before he went over to mystery guys flat, so he warmed up some food his mom had given him at the beginning of the week since she knew he was terrible at cooking himself.

Getting nervous once he finished his meal, thinking about the prospects of meeting this mysterious guy was suddenly looming over him. What was Pedro supposed to say? Knock on the door and say, “hey I’ve been waking up at 6:15 every morning because I can hear you singing in the shower and I thought you sounded really good!” Pedro shook his head, even in his head that sounded pretty creepy.

As he cleaned off his plate and grabbed his keys, Pedro reminded himself that he was a charismatic character, he didn’t have problems with charming anyone. He’d just start off with introducing himself then go on from there. Nodding to himself, Pedro took a breath and left his flat, stuffing his keys into his pocket on top of his phone.

Possibly if mystery guy lived any further away, Pedro might have ended up turning around and going back to his own flat, but he only lived a wall away. So a moment later, Pedro was knocking on the door. Taken aback, the door opened before Pedro even finished the third knock. A girl with fairly large glasses, beautiful long dark hair, tan skin, and a camera around her neck opened the door. She had a smile on her face, but Pedro thought that maybe he interrupted something, since her camera was still on.

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting-” Pedro started to ask, but the girl shook her head, a smile still on her face.

“No, you’re not interrupting anything. I’m a photographer. My cameras always on.” The girl said, clicking her camera off, “How can I help you?”

Pedro shook off his awkwardness, hoping that the mysterious guy was here right now, “I’m live just next door. I realized we haven’t been introduced yet after I’ve already lived here for a week. I’m Pedro. Pedro Donaldson.” Pedro held out his hand.

The girl nodded, shaking Pedro’s hand, “I’m Ursula Kuang-” Suddenly, Pedro could hear piano music coming from the other side of the flat. Ursula looked back with a smile, “That’ll be my friend. I’ll call him out so you can be introduced to him. Please, come in.” Ursula stepped aside and Pedro walked in, noticing almost immediately the mixture of concert memorabilia along with amazing photography all over the walls. Just as Pedro had finished skimming his eyes over all the things on the wall, a guy walked out and Pedro held his breath.

Right away, Pedro knew this had to be the mysterious guy he had been hearing in the showers. The guy paused as he came out of a room and turned the corner to see Pedro, but he corrected it quick enough and walked up to Pedro with his hand out, “Balthazar Jones.”

Pedro shook his hand, feeling an electric shock in them as he did, “Pedro Donaldson.” The guy was a bit shorter than Pedro himself and was wearing a blazer that was a size too big for him, making him look smaller than he actually was. When they shook hands, Pedro could just tell that the guy – that Balthazar – was a musician from his calloused hands.

“So you live next door?” Balthazar asked Pedro, smiling.

Pedro nodded, “Yeah sorry. I didn’t mean not to say that it’s just-” _that he felt like he had seen Balthazar before, but he wasn’t sure where._

Ursula had set her camera somewhere as she came back over to them, interrupting what Pedro was about to say, thankfully. “I was going to make some tea. Would you like some, Pedro? Balth?”

Balthazar shook his head, “I’m fine, thanks Urs.”

Pedro smiled, “No thank you, I just had a coffee.”

Ursula nodded, gave a pointed look to Balthazar for some reason, and then walked off to the kitchen. Balthazar nodded off towards the sitting area, “Come in and sit down.”

“Thanks mate.” Pedro grinned, “I feel like I’ve seen you around before.”

Balthazar looked down for some reason… _was he blushing?_ But then shook it off, “Well, you’ve been living next door for a week, we might have seen each other in the passing.”

“Probably.” Pedro agreed, although he didn’t exactly think that was true, from the looks of it, Balthazar didn’t, “So,” Pedro said, “do you play a lot of instruments?” As it came out of his mouth he realized that might sound weird, “It’s just, I heard a piano when I came over and there’s a ukulele on the wall.” Pedro said, trying to regain some confidence.

Balthazar smiled, seeming to relax at Pedro’s nervousness, “Yeah. I play quite a few of instruments – I mean, if you give me something, I could give it some sort of rhythm.”

Pedro laughed, “Talented.” His eyes caught on a Sheep, Dog, & Wolf signed poster, “Woah, that’s awesome!” He said, gesturing to it.

Looking up and behind himself, Balthazar suddenly laughed, “Yeah, it really is. Urs actually made the poster herself. It was pretty awesome that I still got it signed. Do you like the band?”

“Definitely. My favorite song is Glare.” Pedro said, smiling as he thought about this morning, “Actually, that’s really why I wanted to come over and say hello.” Pedro said, trying not to make himself sound odd.

“Are you going to tell me that you’re the voice I sometimes hear singing along with me or the mysterious clapping that I occasionally hear in the shower?” Balthazar asked, but, somehow, he didn’t seem to be taking this weirdly at all. He actually seemed to think it was pretty funny.

Pedro grinned, “Yes. That’s me. It was actually pretty annoying when I first moved in but you have such a good voice and a good taste in music. Although, I did have to look up the Mumford and Sons song.”

“Sigh No More? That’s is my favorite song of all time. ‘Love it will not betray you, dismay, or enslave you. It will set you free.’ I love it.” Balthazar said, his eyes diverting to a spot above Pedro’s head for some reason.

“I looked up the Mumford and Sons version after I heard you singing it, but I think I prefer your version more. Probably because it’s your voice that introduced me to it-” Pedro stopped realizing how odd that sounded, “No, that sounds bad-” Vaguely, he could’ve sworn he heard a laugh come from behind him.

Pedro turned around and saw Ursula walking by with her cuppa, she smiled at Pedro, “Balthy has a YouTube channel if you want to hear him singing the song.” Pedro just happened to look back at Balthazar turning red and mumbling something about how Ursula wasn’t helping him at all. Ursula smiled and nodded towards one of the doors, “I’ll be in my room for a bit – I have a video call with Rosalind in a few minutes. It was nice meeting you Pedro, I hope to see you soon.”

“See you.” Pedro responded, then looked back at Balthazar, “A YouTube channel?”

Balthazar nodded, “Yeah. It’s not all cat videos and funny fails.”

Pedro laughed, “I know. My two friends, they will be moving in with me soon, they both had YouTube channels when we went to high school. They only used them for a year, but it was pretty funny when they would complain about each other.”

“You live alone right now?” Balthazar asked.

“Yeah. We were all planning on moving in at the same time, but there was problems with our schedules and I ended up moving in three weeks early.” Pedro shrugged, “It gives me time to prepare for them.”

“That bad?”

Pedro shook his head, “Oh no, they’re a laugh, Beatrice and Benedick, but Beatrice is really stubborn and Ben has this plastic flamingo that he carries everywhere- sorry. I don’t need to be complaining about them to you.”

Balthazar smiled, “I’ll end up meeting them soon enough.”

“Hopefully just not a week after they move in. They would probably come marching over to say hi the moment their bags are in the door.” Pedro laughed. They both went quiet for a moment as Pedro looked around the room once again.

“So, do you play any instruments?” Balthazar asked, just to keep Pedro talking. Neither of them wanted to leave each other’s company, now that they started to talk.

Pedro grinned, “No way. I’m miserable at them. I can beatbox though. Pretty well if I do say so myself.”

The duo started to talk about music once again and Pedro couldn’t help but enjoy it, Balthazar’s eyes lit up and Pedro let him take control of the conversation. It was easy to see just how much music actually meant to Balthazar, and Pedro was sure, if they had unlimited time, Balthazar would probably talk about it some more. However, Balthazar stopped after a bit and blushed, “Sorry, you probably don’t want to hear me talking about my gigs.”

Pedro shook his head, “I love it. You are really into music, I can tell. It’s cool to see someone so excited about things anymore.” Balthazar nodded and the conversation quieted again.

While the silence lingered a little longer Pedro, unable to stop himself from asking after it popped into his head for the sixth time since he walked into the door asked, “Is Ursula your girlfriend?” Then covered his mouth and shook his head, “You don’t have to answer that. I’m sorry. It just came out. I’m sorry.”

Balthazar smiled slightly and Pedro _really_ wanted to know if he was single – and into Pedro – and almost sighed a breath of relief when Balthazar shook his head, “No. Urs is just my best friend. We’ve been best friends for about six years now.” His eyes gazed at Pedro for a moment, then away as he said, “I’m gay.” He didn’t say it like he was afraid of Pedro being disgusted at that, it was more of him asking something about Pedro.

Trying to hold back a smile, Pedro said, “I’m bi, actually.” Just as Pedro was about to take a chance and ask if Balthazar was single… “ **NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN**!!!” Pedro tried to silence his phone but his keys must have clicked the answer button because, “PEDRO WHERE ARE YOU? I’M OUTSIDE THE FLAT AND YOU FORGOT TO GIVE ME KEYS! BEA AND I WERE TRYING TO SURPRISE YOU BUT YOU KIND OF RUINED IT BY NOT BEING HERE! WHERE ARE YOU?”

Pedro turned red and glared at his pocket, pissed off at Ben for not having any better timing. He dug out his phone and responded, “I’ll be there in a bit, Ben…. Yeah. I’m nearby. Try not to break my down please. Otherwise I’m adding it to your rent. That goes for Bea as well… Yeah sure…. See you in a few minutes.” He hung up and looked at Balthazar, “I’m so sorry about that.” Pedro felt like he lost his chance to ask. Sighing he stood up and started towards the door, in the corner of his eye he saw Ursula come out and motion something to Balthazar just as Pedro got to the door.

“Hang on!” Balthazar said, stopping Pedro in his tracks. Pedro turned around, curious, and Balthazar was taking a deep breath, “Want to go out somewhere tomorrow?”

“Like on a date?” Pedro asked stupidly, not realizing right away how bad that sounds.

Balthazar nodded slowly, “I mean, if you’re single. And if you want to.” He said quietly.

Pedro’s face split into a complete grin, “I would _love_ to. Can I give you my number?”

It didn’t seem like Balthazar had comprehended what was happening, until Pedro pulled out his phone and handed it to Balthazar. Suddenly, Balthazar started to grin too like it was a mission accomplished. The two of them exchanged numbers and Pedro laughed as he heard another _bang_ on his flat next door from Ben, “I’ll text you soon.”

“Yeah. Yeah…” Balthazar couldn’t stop smiling too.

The moment Pedro walked out of the door, he told Balthazar not to let himself be seen by either Bea or Ben because then Balthazar wouldn’t hear the end of it either, Ben practically jumped him. “You’ve been next door this whole time? We’ve been waiting outside for _five minutes_ and you’ve been next door the whole time!”

Bea was the observant one, “You look really happy. Are you with someone?”

Pedro, still grinning, unlocked the door without responding to either of his friends and tossed two keys at each of them, “The blue key will get you into the building. The other one gets you into the flat.” Pedro said, both of them made sounds of annoyance when Pedro didn’t respond. It wasn’t until he had got into his room that he turned around and said, “And yes, I think I just did start dating someone.” Then he shut his door and pulled out his phone to text Balthazar.


	2. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Balthazar smiled from where he was lying on Pedro’s chest. The two of them were cuddled up on the couch in Balthazar’s flat. Ursula was out doing photography for a new book jacket of a book that was being republished for its ten year anniversary. Beatrice and Benedick were both over in the flat next door with Hero, Beatrice’s cousin, and two of Benedick’s cousins. So that left Pedro and Balthazar to the empty flat, which is one of the biggest reasons that the two of them never moved in together. They both have things at both flats and there is always a good chance that they will have an empty flat if they were to ever want one. It was their one year anniversary and they just wanted some alone time.

“There’s something that I’ve been wondering, Balth.” Pedro said quietly, not sure if Balthazar was awake or not. Balthazar hummed into Pedro’s chest to let him know that he was listening, “When we first met, you had already sort of known me. How? I realized when I got home that day that I recognized you from a dream I had had that night, but how did you know me?”

Balthazar looked up at Pedro and blushed, “Umm, I _might_ have been trying to pluck up the courage to talk to you ever since I saw you move in. I thought that you were cute and I had heard you singing along with me for a week before you came over yourself.” Balthazar laughed a bit, “Actually, when Ursula came to tell me you were here, she actually said ‘good job, Balthy. You don’t have to go and talk to the mysteriously cute guy anymore.’ I was so confused but I followed her out.”

Pedro laughed, “That’s why you froze when you saw me?”

“I didn’t think that you noticed that.” Balthazar said, burying his head in Pedro’s chest, “But yes.”

Smiling down at his boyfriend, Pedro could just hear through the thin walls, Ben calling out to one of his cousins. There was a loud bang and some well-chosen curse words from Ben. After a moment then Pedro’s phone went off again, “ **NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN**!!!” Sighing, Pedro grabbed his phone and answered it, “What Ben?”

“You might want to come over, Pedro. They _may_ have gotten into your room.” Ben said, then hung up. Through the walls, Pedro could hear Ben yelling again, this time he heard, “NOT FLOYD! ANYTHING BUT FLOYD!”

Sighing, Pedro kissed the top of Balthazar’s head, “I have to go. Ben can’t take care of his own cousins and I don’t think Bea and Hero are helping at all.”

Balthazar moved off the couch and smiled at Pedro, “I’ll help you.” Balthazar walked out of the door first and Pedro locked up behind him. Just as Pedro shut the door to the flat, he saw Ben pushed out of the other one, his keys snatched from his hand, and the door was locked and slammed in Ben’s face.

_This is going to be a long day_. Pedro thought to himself as he waved his keys in Ben’s face and tossed them over to Ben, “Control your family, Ben.” He laughed as Ben fumbled with the keys.

“I’m trying! Their holding Floyd hostage!” Ben cried out, throwing the door open. Sighing, Pedro and Balthazar followed Ben in, ready for whatever they were about to deal with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> A short epilogue will be up tomorrow! :) I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
